MMORPG: The Quest to Find a More Dynamic Game Structure

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First Shot: Dofus Online

 

As an avid Mac user, one of my first goals in choosing an MMORPG was to find one I could play on my Mac (without having to use Windows in Parallels). I thought, "I know I don't know much about MMORPG's, and I know a great deal of them are 'Windows-only,' but there *have* to be some (good) cross-platform games." After some digging around on site like MMORPG.com, I confirmed my suspicions that yes, there were few Mac-compatible MMORPG's out there. However, popular games like WoW (World of Warcraft) were available, but game like those don't appeal to me. For one, I think they're far too grim and combat-oriented, which to me is boring. I've also heard that the game is very, very addicting, to the point that RPGers have told me that people have dropped out of college and some have *died* from playing WoW due to the overwhelming addiction:

 

Article Noting Deaths of Two WoW Gamers

 

This wasn't a risk I was willing to take, even despite the ironic fact that playing WoW would be *for* school.

 

Not too long into my search I found a game called Dofus.

It's a multi-platform game that looks so cute. It's a 2D Flash-based game, advertising colorful screenshots, a wide variety of anime-style characters, and a price tag of $0. To me, this looked like a promising prospect, so I signed up, downloaded the game, and started customizing my character. I thought was really neat; I could design the color and choose the type of my character, so I thought, "hey, if the character is this customizable, the game itself has got to be pretty dynamic, full of many interactions that are non-combat. Here's what the character design page looks like:

 

 

Pretty neat looking, huh? Well, after I designed my character, I was off! The 2D world advertised in the screenshots was accurate, as I past through screen after screen of a well-designed environment. However, the character interaction was somewhat frustrating. The characters built into the game had canned introductions and responses, but also *my* introductions and responses were quite limited, to the point that all the answers would essentially add up to the same thing or it was very obvious I could get a "quest" out of that character. I felt it was limited and somewhat "predestined," in that my gameplay was a "choose your own adventure" which only has so many outcomes. My attempts at contacting other players like myself, was almost just as frustrating. I made many attempts to say "hi" to other characters, but the greetings were never returned, or, if they were, the game's console was so confusing I couldn't figure out if the character was talking to me or someone else. Apparently there's are public and private forms of communication, but they appeared to all show up in the same console so it all looked garbled to me.

 

So in addition to the poor communication and confusing console, the thing that really got me was the very tedious, repetitious combat sequences. I could fight these little black blobs or characters that looked like sheep, just to get measly health points and items that, despite my efforts, I couldn't figure out how to use on my character (like healing potions). Also, in a couple of the battles in which other people joined me, it was often very experienced players who did so and they would kill me before killing the monster. How nice of them.

 

 

In my past attempt playing, I did get someone to finally talk to me. The conversation we had is documented in my screenshot. Ironically, after my last comment, he never responded, which I guess only proves the point I was making to him. It seems all people are interested in are fighting battles and selling things.

 

I knew I needed more than this.

 

So, after this frustrating gameplay, I set out on MMORPG to not stop searching for a new game, PC OR Mac based, until I found a game that was more than just combat. So I did some digging around and found a game called "Endless." It's another cutesy-pseudo anime game, but their tagline is "Endless is a 2d anime based online mmorpg. Once playing our online rpg you can become rich and famous, fight evil monsters, become a hero or live as a normal citizen. "

 

Normal citizen! Yes, this is what I was looking for! However, I have to get it set up on a Windows machine so that is going to take some time. I'm hoping to get Parallels and Windows XP installed on my mac so I can play this game wherever, but it'll be a couple days I think so I'll update later.

 

Game Play: 2 hours

 

 

Endless Online: Civilian Life & Combat Combined

 

 

Alright, so I finally got around to checking out Endless (midterms were a bit of a distraction!) and seeing what the game has to offer. I loaded the game onto a Vista machine and, although I was able to get an account setup and a character working, the game kept crashing after about a minute of play. However, from the first look around it seemed interesting so I'm hopeful. I've got to load it onto XP or try another machine, so I'll give that a go. Hopefully the downtime will be minimal.

 

Game Play: 1 hours

 

Endless Online: First Real Shot

 

I finally got XP up and working on my mac, so I gave the game a try. The game play was small due to the limitations of Parallels, but it worked well enough. This game is much like Dofus in that you get to design a character, but the interface was much more limited in color options and you didn't get to choose a class of character, so your character starts out pretty generic. Also, the character starts out only with under clothing, so the character is literally "stripped" down to the basics!

 

After designing my character, I was off to go run around. I found once again that the interface was quite detailed in that there were complex menus and I found it a little difficult to learn. This game, unlike Dofus, had no intro tutorial to teach you how to use some of your tools and "test drive" the purpose of the game. In fact, it wasn't until someone told me that I found out that I was even in a beginner's world, and I had to die to get to my next one. In the screen shot below I have a shot of me talking to the first friend I made who was kind enough to share some information with me about himself (Another friend I made helped me get the sword I have in my hand in that shot):

 

 

This friend explained to me that this land we were in was not the actual game and that I had to *die* to get to the actual game.... funny how that wasn't brought to my attention at all. I figure that information is buried somewhere in the readme.rtf file for the game, along with a tutorial to explain the multiple, lacking-in-text menus at the bottom of my screen. The lack of orientation is probably why people were so willing to talk and help each other out - the land I was in was full of newbies and no one knew what was going on. How lovely! :/

 

Also, another friend I didn't get a screen shot of chatted with me quite a bit and said we should power up to level 3 and die together so we arrive in the new world at the same time - he said his older brother plays the game and was already in the actual game. We exchanged email addresses and we were going to meet up, but neither of us contacted the other. It made me realize how hard it is to actually meet up with people in MMORPG's because of varying schedules, time zones, and perhaps a lack of dedication to the game. From here I realized I should try to game play in larger chunks of time to have continuity in my playing and make some friends. It makes me wonder how dedicated MMORPGers really have to be in order to be successful players - what do you have to be willing to change in your life in order to accommodate the game?

 

 

In any case, after I died, I was in fact transported to the game. Here I found a frenzy of people who were much more varied in appearance than in the newbie world and the amount of public chatter was high. Not knowing what was going on, I just started asking questions out loud, hoping someone would answer. That's how I met Yackama. In the screenshot I have shown here, she is instructing me on how to do business with the shop owner Bob. She took me around to various places like this and explained what they were. Soon though, we met up with her "boyfriend" Imboredp. While talking with them, they talked about getting married (which they said you can only do at level 5) and I saw them get defensive if any player walked inbetween them or made advances toward Yackama. Someone asked them if they were married in real life or if they were going to get married in real life, but they were inconclusive with their answers. Marriage... in an MMORPG? What a concept. I wonder how that might or might not extend beyond the realm of the game and what an MMORPG entails within the game.

 

 

After some idle talk, Imboredp introduced me to his friend Ericyman, and we formed a group. From there, we went to kill monsters to gain EXP points. From there I tried to gather what information I could from them about the game, but a number of my questions got lost in idle chatter of other players wandering around and the conversations between the people in my group. However, one topic we did talk about was age. Part of this discussion can be found in my screenshot.

 

As you can see, Imboredp said he was 11 and Yackama said she was 14... I believe Ericman said he was 12. That left me far ahead of the group at 21. 21! I felt like the old woman of the group. Here I had an 11 and 14 year old talking about getting married and they've got this old bittie walking around with them. I had no idea I was playing with people so young. Question is, is that how young they really were? Usually, when one lies about their age, they give a fake, older age. But 11, 12, and 14 are not "old" at all. This left me to wonder how old the people were throughout this game and if I really was in an older or outlying demographic. How strange... I thought for sure I'd be a median age, but maybe it's the game I picked. This game wasn't the highest ranked on MMORPG.com and maybe younger "tweenagers" choose to play it because it's not as intimidating as the more popular games where there may be older players.

 

Eventually I had to leave (big bummer there) because I had other plans. I said my fairwells to my group (who returned my farewells) and I logged out. Next time, I knew I had to play longer. However, with the apparent demographic and once again the difficultly in learning the game (not to mention the tiny, tiny graphics due to a limitation in Parallels), was Endless really the game for me? I decided to think on it for a while and see if switching again wasn't the best option.

 

Game Play: 3 hours

 

Third Time's the Charm: Maple Story

 

 

So in a last effort, I went looking around once again for a new MMMORPG.I finally found myself browsing the list posted on the front page for the practicum project and found Maple Story. The first thing I did, which I've realized now is key with MMORPG's, is check out the screenshots for the game. Graphic presentation appears to be a make or break selling point, as it's part of the overall feel of the enjoyment you get from the game. For me, I've found that having tiny little characters that you can barely see is no fun. What is the point of designing a character when you can barely see them? To me, it makes me feel more removed from the game and thus feel less of an attachment to it.

 

 

 

Lucky for me, the screen shots for Maple Story were quite promising, displaying large characters, a colorful world, and again, more-than-combat features. So I went with it and signed myself up for the game, designed my character, and I was off. I had a little difficulty choosing which server to play on, but I found after repeated logins and outs that you have to choose the same server, same channel to keep playing a character you created (one of my characters I think is now lost to me because I can't remember where I put it). I don't understand why this game does this and the others didn't, but it probably has to do with data distribution - this game appears to be larger in size than the others.

 

Once I was in, however, I quickly found this game had much more development in terms of training. The first screen you see, in fact, gives the key commands for operating your character so that you know how to get around. The next part of the game involves guides who send you through a newbie training, where you get to practice moving around and killing some small-time shrimp to gain some experience points. Here I found many other newbies but few were interested in talking. Unlike the other games, the newbies here had much more clear-cut objectives and didn't have the need to stop and ask for assistance. Besides, unlike Dofus, the newbies aren't really isolated all that much so the chance that there would be much knowledge in the newbie realm would be slim. In fact, this part of the training was inside the newbie world (called Maple Island) and it's a part you can never return to. You can return to and live on Maple Island, but not in newbie training.

 

 

After my training, I entered the island and found characters that were part of the game that gave me quests for which I could get rewards (I'm "Setsuna0725" - one of the characters I'm talking about is "Maria" in the screenshot). I also found a newbie guidebook, that gave some more in-depth information about the game, including the concept of becoming one of four roles: a magician, a thief, a bowman, or a warrior. From here, a newbie has to be strategic in how he/she allocates his/her experience points to qualify for one of those four roles. Here the game provides structure by giving newbies a goal even before they reach the main island with the non-newbie players. However, with all this supplied structure, I was worried it was leaving little room for newbie-to-newbie interactions as the necessity was really not there.

 

However, as I progressed through the newbie levels, I found people were starting to talk more, trade, and add me as a friend. The interactions were brief and sporadic, but I was able to solicit help and new items. One guy, right after initiating conversation with him, asked me if I wanted to be his "girl friend." I was quite surprised by this and said yes, but little came of it. I found that others would randomly help me defeat tougher enemies and I did the same, which is key to keep from dying, though it's not so bad. You get transported to a safe place nearby and get half your HP back (health points). I even had a conversation with a guy who had died, as you just get to hang out there until you click "OK," where you acknowledge you will be sent elsewhere. It was entertaining as he was humorous and was kind enough to explain to me how to make friends.

 

Also, the game is designed to keep newbies in newbie land until they are ready by taking tasks from the in-game characters I mentioned earlier. You have to kill quite a few little enemies before you can get all the items required for your tasks, so it definitely keeps you from leaving Maple Island too soon, including the fact that you need 150 mesos (the currency in Maple Story) before you can leave, as you need to travel by boat to get to the next island.

 

This first interaction with Maple Story was much more promising than the last two games. I plan to stick with this one for the reset of my project and hopefully make my way to being a magician in no time! I'm not entirely sure why being a magician seemed to click but I think I like the less violent aspect of it. I also think it would be neat to have "powers" and learn spells instead of just beating creatures up. My character can already beat creatures up and that's not all *that* exciting. So we'll see what being a magician has to offer for me!

 

Game Play: 3.5 hours

 

 

 

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Maple Story: Victoria Island & Japan

 

 

 

One thing I've found about these MMPORG's is that they have the strongest security settings I've ever seen. They require you often to key in your passwords on an in-game key pad and don't let you type it in. During the games, they warn you to never, never, NEVER share your login/password with ANYONE. They treat it with higher security that my bank or UW Madison and NetID security. It boggles my mind - do people really invest that much stock into these games that they have to put up such big warning signs? To me, I know people spend time building up their characters but it's not like any of it is *real* like bank statements or email. It's just a game with imaginary characters who have imaginary items. Not to mention the login procedures are a pain - with having to put in a password and a pin, it makes getting into the game a slightly cumbersome process, especially because I always screw it up and have to start over *grumbles*

 

 

 

During this game play, I went around and killed some more little beasts (and some bigger ones too) but I found myself getting bored with Maple Island. There were just monsters and newbies running around everywhere, with in character games providing some little tasks (to the left is a picture of me completing a task for "Sam"). Some of the tasks I just got bored with or I increased in experience levels too much to complete them as you get too experienced for some tasks to be a challenge for you anymore. This makes game play a little frustrating because you're trying to do well and get all the points and prizes you can, but in the process you can disqualify yourself. Well, that's no fun. So after a number of level-uppings and reaching the minimum level to become a magician (I believe the level is 20) I decided I wanted to go to Victoria Island. The big deal about that is that it takes 150 mesos to get there (I had well over 1000) and you can *never* go back to Maple Island. I realized the issue with this, figuring that bigger monsters were ahead and I wouldn't be able to go back and kill peon monsters for cheap points, thus in part taking away from the experiences of newbies. But, in the interest of making progress, I set sail for Victoria Island.

 

 

 

Once I got to Victoria Island, I ran around a while and talked to some of the in-game characters and found things got *much* more expensive. Characters were wanting me to pay thousands of mesos to take me to different places that I had no idea where they were. I thought, "wow, I'm going in a little over my head!!" With only a thousand mesos in my pocket, I knew I'd have to go around and kill lots of monsters to gain some more money. To give an idea of how big-league the game was, I met a character while there and asked him if he was new. He said "no..." and said he had been playing the game for 2 years. I took a look at his stats and found his experience points where in the 5000's and I was only at 500. Wow. He also had a guild and a pet, along with other impressive stats. Seeing those numbers and items on him, I started to contemplate just how many hours one would have to spend to become an expert at this game... this concept made me shutter as hours spend in games like these are hours lost in the real world. Here, the "experience" and "money" you earn adds up to nothing in reality. Employers won't hire you based on how well you can take a sword to jumping orange mushrooms. The game doesn't generate revenue and MMORPG's, from my experience, are a pejorative when played at extreme lengths. It depends on the game as well, but in general, those really "addicted" to the games are not seen as being much better than drug addicts, as it's associated with anti-social (and anti-health) properties. I think the concept is that you're isolated from the world, but for those who play, they make friends and guilds, so are they really isolated?

 

 

Once I saw how small this first port was, I wanted to get going and see some more new land. I found a travel agent that for 300 mesos was willing to take me to Mushroom Island, Japan. "Japan!" I thought. "how cool is that!!" I didn't know that traveling would involve traveling to placed that mimicked any locations in the real world. So I told her I wanted to go and woosh! I found myself in Japan. There I found japanese architecture, food, and characters. I bought some ramen that could recover 500 HP and talked to all the characters I could. I then traveled around in Japan and tried killing some of the monsters there but found they were *far* stronger than me and I got killed often. They were neat looking monsters but I knew I had to keep killing smaller fries to get the experience to take these guys on. I was able to kill some mushrooms in Japan and got killed 5 or 6 times before I decided to head back. The shot I have here is in front of a food vendor, surrounded by cherry blossom trees and a gateway to a shrine. I've actually been to Japan before so it was fun seeing some of the things I had actually seen in Japan, and took it with a grain of salt that some of the characters were slightly stereotypical, but in a game I think that's to be expected. The idea is that it's supposed to be exotic and have all the things people typically hear about Japan so they get their mesos' worth. The trip is advertised somewhat like a vacation so I think it's supposed to be funny and enjoyable, which I thought it was!!

 

 

After Japan, I decided to head to Elinia where I learned I needed to go to become a magician. So I once again paid a travel agent of sorts 120 mesos to get there. There I found a lush forest theme with lots of ladders, bridges, and fairies. I saw many more characters with wizard caps and staffs, and many more creatures I had never seen before. Like most the the games I've played, the real world gets more more diverse and I was glad to see another change of scenery. Here I was lucky enough to make a friend that showed me around, talked me me about how to avoid scammers and how to use teleports in tree trunks. He also gave me a ton of items (which he coined a "NOOB SALE") and dropped a ton of stuff for me to pick up. He told me he goes around Maple Story Training new people and that's why he gave me all that little stuff. I don't know what else he had, but the stuff he gave me was useful for health and trading (clothing, for example.) I asked him about how often he played and he said "one to two hours" at a time, but not every day. He didn't divulge much other personal information though; it seems people avoid doing that in these games, and for good reason I figure. Why tell people who you are, where you're from? You have no idea who you're talking to and you're here to play a game in a virtual space, perhaps forget your real life for a couple hours. I wonder for how many people this is an escape and they get to identify with their character rather than negotiate their real life personality with others.

 

 

In any case, the last place my friend took me (his name was "huygyaun" - whatever that means!) was to Grendel the Really Old to become a magician. Here, I got to officially become a Magician and was given the task to become stronger by killing monsters, but I was warned to try to avoid dying at all costs because I would lose my EXP points. What a bummer now; it was easy as a newbie to die with little consequence but now their are stakes involved in me becoming a good magician. This means I have to be more careful about which monsters I attack and which I leave alone for another day. I'm kind of excited about having chosen my profession, but Grendel warned that magicians are the weakest in hand-to-hand combat and that I have to learn to attack from afar with spells, using physical force only when necessary. As I've only had hand-to-hand combat training, I think it will be an interesting challenge to try to master a new form of attack that will take more foresight. I think my friend huygyaun gave me more help than the game was expecting so I'm not the best in EXP (experience) points or hours of gameplay, but I'm hoping I'll be able to make that up!

 

Game Play: 5.5 hours!